Author: Press Room

The Auckland-based, Canadian-born billionaire making a bid for NZME’s board says editorial content is a “side issue” and journalists should be “optimistic” about the future.Private equity tycoon Jim Grenon, a New Zealand resident since 2012, bought a 9.3% stake in NZME for just over $9 million. NZME is publisher of a number of newspapers, including the NZ Herald, as well as operating radio stations and property platform OneRoof.Within days of taking the stake, Grenon had written to the company’s board proposing that most of its current directors be replaced with new ones, including himself.The union representing the organisation’s journalists, E…

By Gyles Beckford of RNZ Bank profits have come through the recession and edged to a record high despite rising costs, flat margins, and regulatory pressures. Collective profits for the sector rose 0.25 percent, about $18 million, to a record $7.22 billion in 2024, with increased net-interest income, static margins, and a fall in the amount lost in bad debts. Head of banking at advisory firm KPMG John Kensington said the banks’ improvement really reflected the resilience of its customers, who had come through high interest rates and cost of living. He said bank attention was now on recovery and…

Whanganui district councillors have voted at an extraordinary meeting to dump unpopular plans for a rates-funded kerbside food scrap collection.The decision will wipe away a 1.5% targeted rate increase for 18,000 households.But the council will be saddled with sunk costs and thousands of small kitchen bins made to collect household food scraps.”We are the proud owners of 19,000 kitchen caddies,” councillors heard.”If there are opportunities to redeploy them, we’ll take them,” chief executive David Langford said.”They may, though, have been stamped with the council’s logo, which would limit opportunities to re-use them.”Councillors noted unanimously that scrapping the collection was inconsistent…

This article was originally published in Portuguese All the opposition parties, with the exception of the Liberal Initiative, voted against the motion of confidence in the government. PM Montenegro even offered to suspend the session if the socialists presented specific questions, but PS leader Pedro Nuno Santos didn’t back down. ADVERTISEMENTThe motion of confidence in the government was rejected by Parliament on Tuesday evening, a year and a day after the 2024 legislative elections. PS, Chega, Bloco de Esquerda (BE), PCP, Livre and PAN voted against, bringing down the government. The Liberal Initiative (IL) was the only opposition party to vote…

New Zealand scientists studying the brains of rugby players have made a significant breakthrough that could allow Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) to be diagnosed in living players.Until now, the disease linked to repeated head knocks could only be confirmed after someone had died.But new patterns of inflammation in affected people have been identified by Auckland University researchers, opening the door for diagnostic testing while someone is alive.The discovery, a world first, could have far-reaching consequences for the treatment and management of people with head injuries, including rugby players.“Our American colleagues are very confident that, within five to 10 years, we…

In an interview to Euronews, Five Star Movement leader Giuseppe Conte said that the Commission “is exaggerating the Russian threat” to boost military expenditure ADVERTISEMENTThe rearmament plan just presented by the European Commission and aiming at unlocking up to €800bn is considered a total waste of money by the former Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte.In an interview with Euronews, Conte claims that ReArm EUmeans “throwing money away to allow all the member states to continue increasing military spending in an uncoordinated and disorderly manner”, instead of boosting a “serious common defense project”, which in his view should reach a strategic autonomy with “a…

An East Coast school is feeding leftovers from the Government’s free school lunches to their pig amid complaints the meals being delivered are inedible.Many students at Nūhaka School line up to dispose of the meals, which staff, who make sure the kids try them before throwing them away, say are bland and often the same lunch on repeat.”Every day, they’re all coming up to line up and throw it away ’cause they’re not into it,” one Nūhaka School teacher told 1News. The meals – usually two buckets full of food waste – are then passed on to Crackling, the now…

If a person spends more than 13 weeks in hospital, their benefit is automatically cut to $55 a week. Some patients and advocates say that’s not enough to survive on and the automatic process further punishes people who are too unwell to fight it, Zoe Madden-Smith reports.Rhiannon Purves has been bedridden in Wellington Hospital for months. Her entire life is confined to four walls as she is unable to walk and is hardly able to speak.The 34-year-old’s days consist of tossing and turning in a bed and desperately finding ways to distract herself from chronic pain and exhaustion.”It’s like dying…

Police have released the name of a 39-year-old man who died in Mairehau, Christchurch over the weekend. A homicide investigation was launched after emergency services were called to an address on Innes Rd around 9.15pm, where a man was found with critical injuries and later died at the scene. He was 39-year-old Tyrone Munns, from Mairehau. A police spokesperson said a scene examination has been completed at the address, and officers were working to determine the circumstances leading up to his death. “We are still looking to speak to anyone who may have heard or seen anything suspicious in Innes…

Polls opened on Tuesday for Greenlanders to elect their 31 lawmakers who will shape policy on the strategic island in the North Atlantic. ADVERTISEMENTGreenland opened its polls for parliamentary elections on Tuesday, with all eyes set on the North Atlantic island for weeks as US President Donald Trump seeks to take control of it “one way or the other”.Home to 56,000 people, the autonomous region of Denmark occupies a strategic location halfway between the US and Russia and contains rare earth minerals key to driving the 21st century’s global economy. Unofficial election results are expected soon after 11 pm CET,…